The staged demolition, conducted in the small village of Kiasar, east of Tehran, showed hand built missiles painted with slogans that call for the destruction of the Regime’s enemies, including “Israel must be erased from the annals of history”, before being fired at reproductions of the White House, a US Navy ship, and an outcropping of Israeli flags.

An Iranian army commander told The Times of Israel that the missiles were symbolic of Iran’s willpower and faith.

This disturbing event reportedly happens every year, with Iranian missile enthusiasts gearing up to destroy models that represent the “Great Satan” (the US) and the “Little Satan” (Israel) as Iranian army personnel watch on.

This year, however, an Iranian TV station aired a documentary about the village and its annual mock bombing. On June 1, Ofogh TV aired the documentary, which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute monitoring group.

The video

It opens with men building the mock missiles in a workshop and then painting them with the quotes of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

A military officer, identified as General Ali Fazli of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is standing close by watching the missiles being assembled.

He said: “In fact, if there is a need one day, this place will be transformed into a real base for the defence of the religion of God.”

The missiles are then brought to a hillside, where a crowd, including women and children, have gathered to watch the mock bombing.

An announcer says in the broadcast: “Prepare to erase Israel from the annals of history. This mark of shame will quickly and permanently be erased from the annals of the world. This base of global Zionism, England, and America, we shall raze it to the ground, and we shall erase it from the annals of history.”

Then, the crowds count down, as one might on New Year’s Eve, and the mock missiles are sent speeding toward their targets, which are incinerated in explosions as the audience cheers.

However, while this is clearly disturbing footage to watch, it’s important to remember that this is merely the sort of military posturing you might expect from a Regime that is so beaten down and unable to actually fight a war against either of the states they mock bombed. It’s an attempt to raise morale among their forces, but it will not work. The Regime is doomed.